"Yahara Waterways" water-trail guide makes a splash

Yahara Waterways, the new water-trail guide published by the Dane County Environmental Council, is making its formal debut during this year's 13th annual Take a Stake in the Lakes Week.

Documenting a trail that extends from Cherokee Marsh to the south end of Lake Kegonsa -- around the perimeters of lakes Mendota, Monona, Wingra and Waubesa by way of the Yahara River and Upper and Lower Mud Lakes -- the new guide is a spectacular compendium of maps keyed to extensive explanations of the watershed's natural, historical and social features.

Copies of the guide can be downloaded here. Additionally, printed copies of the guide are available for $5, and they will be sold at Take a Stake in the Lakes Week. But with more than three dozen events on the Take a Stake in the Lakes schedule from this Thursday, June 7, through Sunday, June 17, perhaps you'd care to know which specific events will feature the new Yahara Waterways water-trail guide.

Always prepared to take the rudder in one hand and the helm in the other, the dread pirates here at The Daily Page will now board your ship and steer it toward nine launch points along the water trail:

Sunday, June 10: Copies of the Yahara Waterways Water Trail Guide will be on sale during the canoe/kayak race scheduled for 11:30 a.m. during the 18th annual Marquette Waterfront Festival at Yahara Place Park, where the Yahara River enters Lake Monona.

Monday, June 11: Send Your Legislator Down the River, a paddling excursion in a 25-foot replica voyageur canoe with elected officials, sponsored by the Rock River Coalition and featuring sites noted in the Yahara Waterways

water-trail guide. Picnic at 4:30 p.m. at Babcock County Park in McFarland, followed by river town hall meeting and 6 p.m. launch. Registration and fee required.

Tuesday, June 12: Jane and Wes Licht -- who developed the Taychopera water trail in the Yahara chain of lakes in the late 1970s and published a 1984 Taychopera canoe guidebook that inspired the new Yahara Waterways trail and guide -- lead a paddling tour of Upper Mud Lake and northern Lake Waubesa featuring sites in the new water-trail guide. Launching at 5 p.m. from Rutabaga, the Monona paddlesport retailer, the tour is expected to finish at about 7:15 p.m.

Thursday, June 14, 5:30-7:30 p.m.: Rutabaga sponsors a tour highlighting sites along Yahara Waterways trail segments on the Yahara River and southwest Lake Monona, launching from Rutabaga, 220 W. Broadway in Monona, with $10 canoe and kayak rentals available by reservation.

Friday, June 15, 4:15-6 p.m.: Staff from the UW's Hasler Laboratory for Limnology lead a paddling foray along Lake Mendota's north shore between University Bay and the Memorial Union, calling attention to sites featured along that segment of the Yahara Waterways water-trail. Participants must bring their own boats, paddles and personal flotation devices to the put-in at UW's Lot 60.

Friday, June 15, 6:15-8:30 p.m.: Friends of Cherokee Marsh and Upper Yahara Watershed lead a paddling excursion along that segment of the Yahara Waterways water trail, with references to the new guide, launching from the School Road boat landing near the intersection with Wheeler Road.

Saturday, June 16: Friends of Lake Wingra guide tours of that lake's Yahara Waterways water-trail sites, departing at various times between 9-11 a.m. from the Wingra Boathouse at Wingra Park off South Knickerbocker Avenue.

Sunday, June 17, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.: Friends of Lake Kegonsa Society sponsors free boat-safety inspections on the water or on trailers at the Fish Camp County Park boat launch, which also serves as the starting point for self-guided Lake Kegonsa tours based on the Yahara Waterways guide.

The complete schedule for Take a Stake in the Lakes and contact and registration information for each event can be found here.

Can't make any of the above events, but still want to buy a copy? No problem. Copies will be available for $5 each at local paddling and sporting-goods retailers, from the Dane County Executive Office in Room 421 at the City-County Building, and at UW-Extension offices at 1 Fen Oak Court.